How To Begin Renting Airbnb Properties | RED Podcast | TJ Tijani

Steve Trang: Shout out to Steve Trane. Jump on the Steve Trane. We real estate disruptors.

Steve: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of real estate disruptors. Today, we have TJ Dejani with short term rental road map, and he flew in from Houston, Texas to talk about how he brings a million dollars a year through Airbnbs. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, sales trainer, and we help hundreds of people every single month buy more houses at deeper margins, and I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires. Question I get all the time is how to become 100 millionaires.

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And this is a live show, so please ask your questions for TJ to answer. Yeah. You ready?

TJ Tijani: Absolutely. Let's get it.

Steve: Alright. So first question is, what got you into real estate?

TJ: Oh, well, for me, I, you know, in college, I put myself to college at the University of Houston. So my background is in mechanical engineering. And, one of my frat brothers, after I went on to graduate college, he said, hey. You need to read this book. I watched you grind through college because when I was in college, I, I didn't my my parents and my family didn't have money to send me to college.

So what I did was I, met with the people at the financial aid office, and I said, hey. What options do I have to go to school? Because I really want to. I have a desire to. What options do I have?

And they said, well, you can defer your tuition payments towards to the end of the semester, but you just have to pay interest on it. I said, okay. Great. I I can make that work. So I end up working at a shoe store, worked at Foot Action, selling shoes.

But what I did, and I didn't even realize I was doing it at the time, was that whenever there was like a crazy dope sale on apparel, mainly Jordan and Nike apparel, what I would do is I would clean up the entire store. So I would I would I would take that 60% off sale, tack on my additional 35% employee discount. I'll pick up these shorts for about 5 to $10, And I will literally take two huge bags into the dorm rooms on campus, and I will sell them for 30 25, $30 because they retail for us $50.60 dollars. Yeah. So at the time, I didn't really realize, but I was wholesaling Jordan and Nike apparel.

Steve: Yeah.

TJ: And so hustle you know, grounds like that. So so I did and I was taking all that money, just putting it away, putting it away. And at the end of the semester, I'll pay my tuition.

Steve: Mhmm.

TJ: And so then I picked up another job tutoring. So I was working full time as a student. Yeah. Still taking on a stool full time student load. So when I graduated, my boy came up to me and said, man, I think you need to read this book.

You a hustler. You know? And it was Rich Dad Poor Dad, of course. That's what everybody, kinda shoo in for a lot of people. And and I took that book with me.

At the time, I was working offshore. So I was on the rigs, working on the substation installation vessels. That was my job. I was at the face of the oil and gas economy.

Steve: You were doing shoes and oil.

TJ: So she well, the oil came after I graduated. Okay. Because now now I graduate with my engineering degree.

Steve: Got it. Yeah. So now

TJ: I'm working for oil and gas company. Well, my job was a subsea installations engineer, and this job required me to spend about 60% of the year working on the rigs, working offshore. The subsea equipment that is used to build and produce crude oils and hydrocarbons, that was my job to install them, subsea. So, so I took that book offshore with me, and I read it twice when I was offshore for three weeks. Mhmm.

I could not wait to get off that boat fast enough. I said, get me off this boat. I need to start buying some assets ASAP. And so, I saw I saw an investment in real estate on the side. Started off doing, buying whole real estate investing, then I bought, bought a course, ironically, Cody's course on the wholesale.

And this was back in 2014, actually. Mhmm. And so that's why I learned how to wholesale. So I started doing wholesale. I wasn't doing bad, closing about one or two deals a month on the side, picking a keeping a few to keep as long term buying holds.

And my goal at the time, I said, you know what? I want to have 10 rental properties Yeah. That I'm gonna retire from this engineering job because I I didn't hate my job. I didn't hate it at all, actually. It was actually a pretty interesting position to be in, but it wasn't the goal for me.

I knew it just wasn't a long term goal. So, So before

Steve: we get into all that. Right? Like, you went to college, and you have the your your wholesaling shorts. Yeah. Right?

Shoes, whatever. You're able to finish college without any student loan debt.

TJ: Any student loan debt.

Steve: Okay. That's pretty good. Took me six years. So you came here from where?

TJ: Nigeria.

Steve: So you came from Nigeria?

TJ: Yes.

Steve: You guys speak English there. Yeah. Absolutely. But was it your first language? Or

TJ: English is my first language, but I can't speak my language, which is Yoruba. Yoruba is my, my culture, and I can't speak my other language. But, yeah, I was born in Nigeria when I came here. I was eight years old when I moved here.

Steve: So I came here at eight years old. Yep. So immigrant. Yep. Went to college, negotiated or learned that you can defer payments.

Yep. Right? OPM.

TJ: Yep. Exactly.

Steve: Using all people other people's money from the get go. Yep. And you were deferring it, and then you were still able to pay it all off Yes. Before you graduated college.

TJ: Absolutely.

Steve: Which I think is huge. Right? Because there's so many people that are, like, you know, make excuses or whatever, complain about student loan debt.

TJ: Like Yeah.

Steve: There are ways to make this work if you wanna make it work.

TJ: If you wanna make it work, there are ways. And trust me, if if if anybody had a had a want, it was me. Yeah. I definitely wanted to make it happen. You know, it was a little interesting, though, because one of my best friends, he we took every single engineering class together.

Mhmm. And I was seeing the way he was supported, like, with his family. His family put him through school, and he got he got a car, and and here I was. I had to get my own car. I had to buy my own car, and I had to put my own self through school.

I think it's important for folks to understand that if you want it, you can make it happen.

Steve: So what was your thing that was causing you to hustle through college?

TJ: So, for me, I I knew just what I wanted for myself. For me, for when we moved down here from Nigeria, it was my mom and my four siblings. So it was five of us, so six of us total. Moved to a small apartment, had, like, a tiny my mom called it a hunchback. It was a little almost a two seater, but we she packed all six of us in there somehow to take us, you know, to take us somewhere to to go.

I mean, it she made it happen. And for me, I knew that, there was just a hunger that I wanted more. Mhmm. And I definitely wanted to make her proud as well. So, I just want I just want a benefit myself, for real.

Steve: Oh, five it's four siblings?

TJ: Four siblings.

Steve: Where are you in order?

TJ: I'm in the middle. In the middle. Two older brothers, two younger sisters.

Steve: Okay. I was I was gonna guess the older because usually the oldest one wants, you know, that that learned that Yeah. That instinct, right, to Yeah. To thrive or kill or or be killed kind of thing. Yeah.

So okay. So you went and graduated. No debt. Mhmm. I went straight into oils.

Guys. Yep. Which I think, Houston, that kinda is like what you do.

TJ: Yeah. Exactly. That's I mean, in East Town, oil is oil and gas capital. So, yeah, I mean, it's kinda what a lot of folks that do engineering that stay in Houston, you might can go work for an oil and gas capital.

Steve: Okay. So you said 2014, you graduated or 2014, you started buying rentals?

TJ: 2014, I started by I started investing in real estate. I graduated 2012.

Steve: Okay. So your buddy says, hey. See how much you grind. You need to look through Rich Dad. Yep.

And then you started buying rental properties. Yep. And then you connected with Sperber. Yep. Got it.

Okay. Sorry. Alright. Continue.

TJ: Yeah. So connect connect connected with him. Well, bought his course Mhmm. And started wholesaling. And I had a goal.

I said, you know what? I want when I get to 10 rentals, I'm gonna walk right from this engineer position. Well, 06/01/2017, I was laid off. When I was laid off, I have five rental properties. But folks who know anything about the oil and gas market is quite ease finicky.

It's eaves and flows.

Steve: Mhmm. What I was gonna say was that I was gonna ask, is that the time where one of those Yeah. Where prices drop and everyone let go?

TJ: Exactly. So when the price when when when you consider the fact that the if that the when the price of oil is a $100 a barrel, everybody's eating, everybody's happy.

Steve: Yeah.

TJ: When it drops to $42 a barrel, but considering that it costs $46 a barrel to build and produce crude oils and hydrocarbons, nobody's drilling. Mhmm. So when that's nobody's drilling, the major operators are not drilling like Exxon and BP and Shell. And that means, like, supporting service companies like our company, we don't have any work. So they the day I was laid off, they laid off about over 70 people just that day.

And they were already laying off a lot of people.

Steve: Excited to get laid off, or you're sad that you got laid off?

TJ: Man, I was I was indifferent, because I I didn't feel like I was ready. But a part of me was excited because that was always the plan. Mhmm. So but then I was like, wow. But but it's not not not right now, though.

But look at should I should I go back and try to get another job or or what? But I decided to just better myself and just go all into real estate.

Steve: Yeah. And the only reason I'm asking is that when I was at Intel, like, Intel's notorious for just laying people off on, like, a regular basis. And I kept waiting. So they would lay me off so I can start my own thing, and they

TJ: never would.

Steve: So alright. So That's interesting. Yeah. Laid off. And so you better yourself.

So what happened next?

TJ: So then I wasn't even looking to do this Airbnb thing. I wasn't even looking to get into the short term rental space. I was more so doubling down on what I was gonna do with wholesale and creative deals. And in my in my, search for just, market research and how to market better, I came across a video about Airbnbs. And at the time, I had never even stayed in an Airbnb.

I said, well, I know about it. Mhmm. Don't know much about it, but there were you know? Okay. If I could potentially make more money doing this strategy than my traditional rentals, then this might be something to look into.

Also, I decided to try it on one of the houses that I was going to make a traditional long term rental. So I just love furnishing. I spent about $14. For instance, three bedroom, two bathhouse and

Steve: $14.

TJ: $14 to furnish it. And and here's the thing about furnishing units. The big stuff is usually not the most expensive thing, like the couches and the beds. You would think that's the most expensive thing, but it's really the stuff that's supporting stuff that adds up the linens. That is a good the linens, the sheets, all the decor that you need, all that stuff.

So and I'll never forget. I remember I I walked in the house one day. It was just boxes everywhere, putting furniture together. I'm up three, 04:00 in the morning, sometimes all night, assembling furniture, and I felt like I was at my wit's end. I said, man, maybe I'll bit off more than I can chew here.

Steve: Selling your furniture. Were you buying these things from IKEA?

TJ: Some I bought from Ikea, but I worked, I I, started working with a local furniture company local to my marketplace, and I started buying furniture from them.

Steve: Got it. Yep. But you had to you had to put those things together?

TJ: I had to put them together. I had to put them together. And I never forget when I when I listed that property. When I first listed the property, I just listed it, and I said and I went home, and I started watching the movie. Planet of the Apes, I just started watching the movie.

I put my phone down. I didn't know what the heck was gonna happen. The moment, literally, within the hour, somebody just inquired. It wasn't even a booking. They just had a question Mhmm.

About one of the one of the rooms. I don't even remember what the question was. And I was so excited. Yes, please. It's ready.

Book it. It's perfect. The property is beautiful. Go ahead and book it. And I'm not booking it.

But the next day, I had two bookings that came in overnight.

Steve: Mhmm.

TJ: And when I woke up and I did the math, I ran the numbers. I said, well, even at 50% occupancy, even if I'm only booked half the month and at the rate that I was charging because I was charging well below market at the time. And I said, even at with those numbers, I'm still looking to, at minimum, two x what I would bring in with a traditional long term. Yeah. And so it was that that's what made it a no brainer for me.

Steve: So at this time, you had five.

TJ: I have five houses.

Steve: And you're converting one of them to the Airbnb?

TJ: This is not house number six. I was converting to air I I was gonna make a short term rental.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So in this meantime Yep. I just wanna take a few steps back here. You acquired five properties.

Mhmm. And you were saying you're house, wholesaling at the time?

TJ: Yes. I was wholesaling at the time. And this is why I was an engineer.

Steve: Well, that's why I was gonna go inside. It was going back to the excuses people make. Right? I can't do this because I'm working. Yep.

Right? I'm too tired. I don't have time. Yep. So how did you make it work Mhmm.

Where you're working on an oil rig? I don't know what the Internet situation is like on the

TJ: phone. Horrible.

Steve: But you are still able to still do deals. So let's talk about how you're able to make that happen.

TJ: Man, you know, sometimes on on the on the rig too, they have, like, depending on the rig, you can have your laptop be a cell phone, right, where you have a little headpiece and all that. And depending on the signal, you can you can call you can you can make calls. So I I would hope I said, man, I hope this vessel has a good Internet. I hope this vessel has a system that I need. Some some some don't.

Some just have, like, a payphone. Like, they'll literally be like, if you wanna call home, you have to stand in line to to make the call. So so I was staying in line like I wanna call home, but now I'm calling sellers to see if they're gonna if I could lock up their property. So I was working offshore, still working on my real estate business while I was offshore, but I'll never forget. There was a time, you know, I came home from the office one day.

My ex girlfriend at the time said, she was like, man, you just got home. You're still working. You're still I said, I went to my home office. I I'm on I'm on calls. I'm making calls.

He said, you're still working. I said, well, well, I said, how dare me? He said, I said, woe to me. Like, how dare me literally make I'm making millions of dollars for this company. Again, I'm a lead.

I'm running these projects. Like, I cannot not work on something for myself. Like, I have to work on something for myself. And so so, yeah, I I mean, for me, you know, it came as a sacrifice for sure. But I think for folks, what needs to understand is that you don't have to have all the pieces to the puzzle.

You don't have to know every single thing. There's no enough. There's no enough to get going.

Steve: Yeah. But you weren't getting ready to get ready.

TJ: No. Exact no. I wouldn't get ready to get it. Yeah. Exactly.

Steve: Alright. Then I imagine there's probably something before this as well. Like, you didn't just learn how to hustle in college. So, like, were you an entrepreneur in in in high school? Or

TJ: Oh, man. That's interesting because because, you know, in elementary school, I used to I used to thought that I was gonna be the next Picasso. I was like an artist. I love drawing Mhmm. Cartoon characters.

I was a huge comic fan. That's why I love Marvel and DC movies now. I was Spider Man was my favorite character. I would draw Spider Man on paper just from a comic, but I'll draw it on plain paper, and I will sell it for a quarter at school. I will beg my mom because my mom worked two jobs.

She was a nursing assistant, and so I said I'll beg my mom and say, if you can, can you just make copies of these? Mhmm. Make copies and bring it home, and and so I don't have to draw so much. I could just make copies. And she would make copies from a Dragon Ball z character, Spider Man, Superman, just name it.

I would draw these characters, and they were pretty good. Yeah. And I would sell them to to my my peers for a quarter in elementary school.

Steve: That's phenomenal. Alright. So you get your sixth property, you turn it to Airbnb, and it sounds like you just hit a grand slam from the get go.

TJ: It just for me, it was a no brainer.

Steve: So there were no challenges with that?

TJ: Oh, there were challenges. Alright.

Steve: So I want I want the challenges. So I'm like, here is like, oh, man. I can make a million dollars a year doing Airbnb. Let's go. Like, what

TJ: Yeah. Are the challenges. So I think I think, what people needs to understand about the strategy, and especially if your mindset is to actually grow something like this to where you can make similar figures in this strategy. Understand that the value is not in Airbnb. The, the because a lot of folks just look to do Airbnb.

Might as well just want to just put up a property on Airbnb and look to just do Airbnb, but that's not where the value is. The value is in the infrastructure that you build out. The value is in the systems and the team that's allowing you to manage this business model pretty much automated. Right? So this is the reason why it takes me the same amount of time it takes me to run and manage five beds is the same amount of time it takes me to run and manage fifty five five plus beds because of the infrastructure.

And for folks who put emphasis on that, that is the right formula, and you're setting yourself up the right foundation to grow a 7 figure short term rental business. Got it.

Steve: Okay. So, what were some of the early setbacks you had with your first Airbnb?

TJ: Oh, man. So earlier on, I did not know how to well, for one, I thought that I had to own every single one of my Airbnbs, and I learned that I didn't have to own these I didn't have to own them. I got educated, then I learned that, okay, I can rent them out. But then you still have to rent them out the right way. Right.

A lot of folks wanna just rent out a property under their personal names and but that's not necessarily what you should do. A matter of fact, you're leaving yourself exposed to a lot of issues that way. You gotta rent it under a business, rent it under a corporate entity. So I learned that I didn't I didn't even have to own these properties. So then how can I rent them?

So my biggest challenge then was actually having these conversations with the landlords who actually get them to to be intrigued enough to work with me to rent their property out. Mhmm. I came from such a position of scarcity at the time. It was like, please, mister landlord, please. I wanna rent your property.

I wanna do this Airbnb thing. And I it there was a time, I I had I had somebody, this lady, she literally laughed, like she laughed me out. I was sitting in her office. It was a nice condo community. I said, hey, so I'm I'm gonna share rent this one of your condos.

I wanna do this Airbnb thing. She said, oh, my. I don't know if I can cuss, but she cussed. She said, oh, she said, oh, my. And she said, oh, my.

She just got up and just walked out. And she left me in her office. So I was just sitting there like, what just happened? Okay. So I think one of the biggest challenges is understanding how to actually position yourself and have these conversations with landlords for them to be intrigued enough because, your positioning factor is how well you break yourself down to explain their pain points.

How well do you speak to their pain points? And I was doing a horrible job at that. And so then I had to learn. Like, even now, we use a script for our students. Our students, there's a script that we use that is a phenomenal script, very simple, concise script, but, you can imagine how many bad conversations I had to have to develop this script.

Steve: I got a property. I gotta rent a property. You're talking to me. What does it sound like?

TJ: Okay. Well well, sir, what what what you used to usually happens when I go visit these properties, and I like to tell people, for one, when you're on the phone, your job is not to well, you can, but your job your your chances are gonna dwindle quite a bit. We want to go ahead and, just set the appointment over the phone. You don't have to go into the details over the phone. Mhmm.

We talk we like to have the conversations face to face. And And what tends to happen is the landlord tends to start asking us questions like, we're gonna be tenants. Like, hey. How many people are your family like? So how was your you know, where are you moving from?

Things like that. And so then your our job is to ask them questions to understand what their experience has been as a landlord. Well, how would your experience have been as a landlord? Have you how long how long have you owned the property? How was your last experience with with your previous tenant?

Then we're just going to the script. The script speaks something like, well, we wanna rent this property out, but not the traditional way. We wanna rent it out to the people that we serve because I think it's very nice, and the people that we serve will really like it. But here's the thing though, we're gonna rent your property out. We're gonna make sure that you you get your rent paid in automated fashion.

You're gonna get your rent paid automatically. Matter of fact, here's other automated payments that we've made to other landlords. And they get paid automatically. We're gonna give you what you're asking for rent. Matter of fact, if it's okay with you, I'll I'll actually like to take it off for two years, not just one.

Uh-huh. You're actually gonna be insured. You can keep your landlord policy, but we're actually gonna add additional short term rental insurance policy. Now don't get this mixed up with a traditional renter's policy. This is the actual insurance policy that protects us for our business model, and we're gonna add you as an additional insurer.

That way you know that you're protected. And here's how we screen screen our guests, and we talk about how we screen our guests. Here's how we protect the property. We we use cameras on the exterior on every entry point of the property. Mhmm.

We speak to that. We speak to how well we're gonna have to take care of the property. Matter of fact, nobody's gonna take care of this property the way we are. Every time, it has to show for every single person that comes in here. And so nobody's gonna take care of it.

I'm talking about cleaning the fans, the baseboards, all that gets taken care of. So we are literally your ideal tenant. We our goal is to position ourselves with the landlord to show them that we are the perfect tenant. And I think that's one of the things that I will tell people right now. If you're looking to get started in this business, understand the value that you bring to the table.

Understand that you are actually a problem solver, and you are addressing the landlord's pain points as the perfect tenant. Matter of fact, when I talk to landlords now, it's almost like it's in your best interest to work with me. I actually feel bad for you if you don't work with me, because I'm literally gonna be your perfect tenant.

Steve: Yeah. I like this. Right? Because the the the the big thing that's happening here is the very first time you did this, scarcity you mentioned.

TJ: Absolutely.

Steve: I don't know. I'm gonna do this. Maybe we can make this work. Right? Versus now, you know what you're doing.

You're confident and, like, this is just the way it is. Yep. And we talk about it in sales, like, the first way you're getting laughed out the door. Yep. Second way, like, oh, this is the way it is and this is the way it is.

TJ: I like that. Alright. Absolutely.

Steve: So alright. So, we talked about, you know, you're getting laughed out of places. How many, I guess, how many short term rentals do you have now?

TJ: So right now, we're at 32. 32. What we're looking to do oh, what we're looking to do, though, right now, we are focused now on purchasing medium sized multifamily properties.

Steve: Oh, hang on before we get there. So, yeah, 32 short term rentals right now. Those five that you had originally, what'd you do with those?

TJ: So few of them were long term traditional rentals, and three of them are still long term traditional rentals. I haven't converted them yet because the tenants I have there are just for now. They've been there for a long time, and I have I haven't converted them yet. And the areas that they're in, they're kind of in last place right now. So I'm not too worried about those areas right now.

I'm so now I'm focused on other areas in the city to grow.

Steve: You got 32 short term rentals, three still excuse me. Three still in the long term. And then you got, you're you're also doing it for other landlords.

TJ: Absolutely. So yes. Exactly. So how many of those two? About 60% of them we own.

I own them. About 40%, I rent through via rental arbitrage. That's exactly what we're talking about. When we're renting from landlords, what we're talking about is rental arbitrage. This is awesome.

Steve: With the shorts.

TJ: Exactly. It's the same thing I do with the shorts. Some people also call it a rent to rent. This is the control without ownership. Mhmm.

And I like it a lot because, there's there of course, we the goal is to always own your real estate. And we our yields are better with the ones that we own for sure. But we love rental arbitrage because we can it's the barrier to entry is a little lower, and we can get to the cash flow a lot quicker with rental arbitrage. Yeah. So, yes, 100%.

40% of rental arbitrage, but 60% we own them.

Steve: Okay. Okay. So what were some other additional challenges you experienced Oh, man. As you as you were doing the, acquiring more

TJ: Yep.

Steve: R to r?

TJ: Yep. I think one of the things that I like I like to tell people, and I can speak to this because I did it, and it was a mistake on my end because I like to let people know one one of the challenges that I had is to scaling on a broken system, scaling too fast, on a broken system because and I like to let people know when you're scaling on a from a standpoint of actually growing your rental portfolio or scaling from a standpoint of getting on multiple platforms. You don't wanna scale on a broken system. I let people know that, yeah, I'm not the Airbnb guy. I mean, I'm the Airbnb guy, whatever, but that's not the business I'm in.

Right? We're in the short term rental space. But I say all that, but I also say start with Airbnb. They are still the most turnkey platform that's out there. Start there.

Get they get ton of traffic. When you start there, make sure that your systems are down packed with just Airbnb. Get your systems tight. Get your team in place. Get your structure, your technology partners, your field partners.

Get them in place and get them tight before you start scaling into other platforms or scale in turn in terms of increasing your your portfolio.

Steve: But still get one rental.

TJ: Exactly.

Steve: Don't wait.

TJ: Don't wait. Just Because

Steve: this is gonna be perfect.

TJ: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Get one.

TJ: Oh, yeah. Get one for

Steve: sure. Get one. Get it good.

TJ: Get it good.

Steve: Then scale.

TJ: Then scale. 100%.

Steve: Got it.

TJ: Get one. Get a good discount. But don't don't just get one, though. Yeah. Just, yeah, just get one.

Steve: Alright. So we could just, simplify this. Right? Yep. You know, I don't own any Airbnbs.

Mhmm. So, you know, let's just say you were coaching me.

TJ: Mhmm. Right?

Steve: I was like, hey, TJ. I wanna get into Airbnbs. Mhmm. What's the first thing I do?

TJ: I'll tell you for if you wanna do rent, Airbnb. Okay. What is the goal? Do you wanna do you wanna focus more on arbitrage? Do you wanna do you wanna do own?

Or do you wanna be gangster like me and do both? Okay. So if you wanna do both, I'll tell you right now. Go ahead and get your entity going. Go ahead and get that entity going.

And not an entity that is tied into anything else that you're doing. An entity that is stand alone for your short term rental business, and that is essentially gonna be your management company because there are multiple ways to skin a cat in this business. We can own this we can own a lot what we're talking about. We can arbitrage what we're talking about. We're renting from landlords.

The third strategy is actually co hosting. This means that you're managing it for another host, somebody who's already hosted. Uh-huh. Or maybe you're able to convince the landlord to invest in furnishing his unit and Airbnb it out for him where he's gonna put, a majority of the income. The the goal rate for co hosting is about 25%.

You keep 25% of gross, and then he keeps 75%. Now all three strategies work. Even though the means of acquisition is different, the means of execution and running it is the same. Right. So I would ask for somebody who wants to get gold.

So which which routes are you looking to get into? Because there are multiple ways of skin and cat. But either way

Steve: the deluxe. I'll just go all

TJ: the way. Go all the way. Either way, go ahead and get that go ahead go ahead and get that entity going. Because even the ones that I own, I still lease them from myself. Gotcha.

So we get the entity going because that's gonna be your management company. But once you do that, then you wanna find the right location. Ideally, you wanna go on go on a map, go on Zillow, or wherever, highlight that that location that you want to get into. Now and then you want to do your market research. Make sure that you go on Google and just type in short term rental ordinances and then your marketplace, your city.

What's going to happen is one or two sites is going to pop up. A site that's going to take you to the current governing laws and ordinances that govern short term rentals in your particular marketplace or your county clerk's website, which has the same information.

Steve: Mhmm.

TJ: But you wanna know what that is before entering a marketplace. On top of that, make sure that the neighborhood that you wanna get into, if you're working with landlords, make sure that there's no HOA issues that you wanna worry about. A lot of times, it's not even so much that the city isn't friendly enough, for example, in Houston, very very friendly towards short term rentals, but then there's still HOA to worry about. Right. Wanna make sure that you that you look into that because if it's in a bylaws that you can't do it, you wanna be be aware of that.

Next thing you wanna do is to go on AirDNA. This is a site. It's almost like when it comps for real estate, for traditional rentals, but this is when it comps for short term rentals. Now AirDNA is gonna allow you to you're gonna pay for the pay for the data, and pay for it is good data. But I'd like to let people know to take AirDNA's data with a grain of salt because there are just certain certain metrics, certain metrics is that they have a hard time tracking.

Steve: Got it.

TJ: For for example, like, I I was I was traveling a lot to do short to to for for my job. So if I was traveling a lot 60% of the year, but I wanna rent my property out while I'm gone, then that's great. But say I have another property that is a full time short term rental property. They have a hard time tracking what's full time or what's actually part time short term rental. So but I I like to let people know still use AirDNA's data because if you like those numbers, then you should definitely run that play on that property because most likely, you're gonna outdo that number.

Steve: Got it. So it's on a lower side.

TJ: It was on a lower side. Exactly. What was the steps you wanna take to get started? The research. Once you do that research with AirDNA, and then, Dennis, you're gonna have a more secure feeling about running the play on that particular property.

Steve: Got it. And then as far as posting on Airbnb, are there any, like, hacks or, like, this is like a must must do?

TJ: Absolutely. So what you what you wanna post on Airbnb for one, make sure that your your account and your profile is complete. Airbnb loves complete profiles, not a partial. So when you actually list a property on Airbnb, you have to go back because you're not done yet. You have to go back, and there's a lot more that you need to fill out, but you can't fill it out until you publish it first.

Got it. You have to publish it, then you go in and make sure

Steve: publish it and you're done. No. You're you're you're in trouble.

TJ: You're in trouble. Your your your SEO, your search rankings are gonna be gonna they're gonna ding you on a search ranking without a complete profile. Got it. So you wanna do that. And don't be a lot of folks, they they mess up their list because they're way too wordy for one.

They they have these long paragraphs. Now realizing that us as human beings, our attention span is not that good. And especially on today on social media, it's all again worse. Alright. So make your descriptions concise.

Like, okay, include, like, a nice paragraph. Just kinda introduce it. But hit what what I like to call haymakers, like the bullet points, all the dope things about your properties. And with the bullet points, it's a lot easier to digest, a lot easier to read. Use professional photography.

I have no clue till this day why hosts still miss on this. You have no idea how much money you're leaving on the table by not having professional photography. Don't wanna spend an extra $200, a $150.

Steve: It's a premium expense. This is a luxury.

TJ: It's spend invest in that photography. It's crazy. Some people a lot of hosts will miss on that. They will all take cell phone photos. No.

And I'm not talking about photography that, that's gonna take that takes photographers that take pictures of you at the club, not photographers that take your wedding photos either. Real estate photographers. Yeah. That's who you wanna take your photos. So definitely that.

If you can if you can, if you have the bandwidth to theme your units, hit it with a nice theme because themes stand out. Mhmm. Now do you have to theme your units to be profitable in this business? Absolutely not.

Steve: Right.

TJ: But themes are a good idea. It gives you a a nice way to stand out. I remember somebody I was I did a theme on one of my duplexes. I made the bottom unit a straight Marvel theme. I got to hit this dope wallpaper.

I had the arcades in there and everything, and an upstairs unit and a DC thing. Right? So and people were like, man, but if you do a theme, but what if people that don't like it, they're not gonna wanna book with you? I said, okay. But you think you're forgetting the people that actually do like it.

Steve: People that'll pay more for it.

TJ: They'll pay more for it. Exactly. They're gonna double down on it. Yeah. And I'm telling you that those units are going bonkers because of the thing

Steve: Yeah.

TJ: Simply because of the thing. And so and so, yes, that's I would definitely say that when it comes to listing your units. Also, your calendar is very important. One of the things that's very important with your listing on Airbnb especially is your pricing and your calendar. Airbnb incentivizes you for being an attentive host.

And when you're an attentive host, one that your prices change Mhmm. Consistently and also one that you just check your just for going on your phone, just checking your calendar, Airbnb likes that. Like, they they they they like that. It gives you point to

Steve: In their algorithm, like, this is a good host. Yeah.

TJ: This is a good host. Right? But your pricing has to you can don't have don't have a fixed pricing. Yeah. Don't have stagnant pricing.

You want your pricing to be fluctuating. You want fluctuating prices? This is why we use dynamic pricing tools like, for one, Price Labs is a good one. Mhmm. Wheelhouse is another good one.

These are dynamic pricing tools that fluctuate your prices and increases them or decreases them based on your market. Right?

Steve: Kinda like a, Expedia.

TJ: It's like a Priceline. Exactly. And and, it's a lot of there's also a lot of ways the hotels price their units as well. And so, you set your minimum price, like, no matter what, it's never gonna go below this. You can set that.

Then you set your base price, and it fluctuates your prices based on your market.

Steve: Plug in those like the API is automatic?

TJ: It's automatic. Well, you set those. Right. You set those. And even But you

Steve: set those by, like, is it like you just tell us a PriceLab, you said?

TJ: PriceLab. Yep.

Steve: So you just sell PriceLab. Here's my Airbnb. Yep. API integration.

TJ: Yep.

Steve: Change it as necessary.

TJ: Change it as necessary. And it changes your prices on Airbnb Yeah. As necessary. That's awesome. And it's it's a great tool because in Airbnb, when your prices fluctuate, another oh, this is an attentive host.

They care. They care about their listing. So, a lot of folks, and especially as you scale, if you if you don't use Price Labs on one of these price tools, you're gonna have to be every couple days changing your prices, not just like one day, your entire calendar. Like so, yes. Again, that can be systematized.

That can be automated. That's crazy. 100%.

Steve: So I was sharing with you, before we started that, you know, I was doing VRBOs back in 2010. Yeah. Right? And and in 2010, this was me and my buddies. I wasn't involved in it.

Like, we had a partnership. Like, they were doing all the work. I just on on the weekly calls, like, you know, getting updates or whatever. Back then, right, we had a VRBO, and we went to call the maid. Right?

She would drive down from Flagstaff to Muns Park

TJ: Yep.

Steve: And clean it. And then she would drive back, and then she would just shoot us a text message that it's done. Right? But there were times where we wouldn't get a text message Wow. And someone's coming in.

Yep. Now you say that things have changed in the last twelve years.

TJ: Absolutely.

Steve: So tell me about that.

TJ: That's an interesting process that was going on back then. But, yes, things have changed. Things have changed. We are managing that process. And one of the beautiful things about Airbnb, period, order strategy, it was birthed in the age of technology.

Mhmm. And technology makes this business a lot easier for us. Just that that exact example that you that you just stated, for us, we use a we use a cleaning management tool. There's there's two that's probably the top two best properly and Turnover BNB. What it does is you can manage their entire cleaning process on that platform.

So as the cleaning process starts, their cleaners go in there, boom, we get a notification on our phone, the cleaning has started. So as the cleaning is over, we get notification on our phone, boom, the cleaning is over with pictures of the job done. A little bit different. A little bit different. Yeah.

A little bit different than back then. And these bulk platforms now, cleaners in your marketplace can subscribe to these platforms, and this is another way that you can actually find cleaners local to your marketplace. Yeah. You could put your property out and put your job out there in the platform, and the cleaners will literally be fighting for your job.

Steve: Yeah.

TJ: And you pick one, you have your checklist, they clean it. If you like them, keep them on the team. That's another way to find cleaners as well.

Steve: So one thing that I I mean, I got friends. Right? They do we're entrepreneurs. Yep. We can't focus.

We're always trying to do different things. We're always trying to add more to our play. Yep. Right? So I have friends that, like, you know, I got my Airbnbs, but they take the most time.

TJ: Yep.

Steve: Right? So I tell them, like, then why are you doing Airbnbs? Mhmm. So a question for you, it seems like once your Airbnb is running Mhmm. It's just it's it's not autopilot, but it's less time involvement.

But to get your first Airbnb up Yeah. Is a time investment.

TJ: Yeah. There is.

Steve: So can you talk about how much time is invested and what you've done to reduce that time Yeah. To get up and running?

TJ: Absolutely. So now understand, especially in the beginning of part of this, you're gonna wear a few hats. Mhmm. And that's okay. It's okay to and and as you scale, you're gonna you're gonna outsource and do that.

And it's okay to be a technician in your business, but essentially transition to be the entrepreneur, more so to where you're the puppet master, make sure that your team is set up for success. But you're gonna wear a few hats in the beginning. There are two things that you can do at the very beginning, even with one listing to save you, like, 70% of your time right away. Automate your pricing automate your pricing, which you use price levels at Wheelhouse. We talked about that earlier.

Secondly, the most the most, like, time intensive thing is constantly communicating with the guest. Mhmm. Constantly being on the phone, ask answering questions, ask responding back to booking requests and things like that. You can automate that process as well. There's a software called well, they used to be called Smart BNB.

Now they're hospitable. Uh-huh. And so now, I mean, you can you can literally use them that set it all up on a platform. Again, it's work upfront, but it's the time saver on the back end that that makes it beautiful. So you can literally set up all your responses.

And as soon as somebody sends a a booking, someone's as soon as a booking comes in well, you're you are automatically confirm the booking. You confirm it with them the dates, the time. And

Steve: you don't like, the bots to

TJ: to Exactly.

Steve: Optimize. So the challenge is the effort is, like, the furnishing.

TJ: Yeah. The furnishing. Right.

Steve: Like, you're driving across town to buy this thing from this store

TJ: Yeah.

Steve: This thing from that store Yeah. And it's like a nightmare, especially if they're trying to have color matching Yeah. And and not quite theming, but

TJ: Yeah. But but but some some some synchrony, like, some Yeah. Some yes. The way everything things will match, everything flows. Right?

So, yeah, the furnishing aspect, you that is definitely gonna take time. And it will take time in the beginning as you and then as you scale, you could it it'll be a lot easier now. Design aspect. Now if you do love design and do that, that that's your jam. Do that.

I designed my first 10 units. I I didn't do a bad job, but, you know, that's not where my time is the most valuable. But I didn't do bad. Didn't do bad. But setting up your units could definitely be very timeless.

I'll tell you what we do now to save time. But but by the way, if you wanna design if you don't wanna design your units, maybe you're not that good at it. And but you don't want to spend extra money to actually pay your whole person to complete your turnkey setup for you because that's the most time saving thing that you can do. Just hand somebody the keys Mhmm. And let them do their thing.

Right? And will that cost you the most money? Yes. It will. But that'd be the most

Steve: efficient way

TJ: to go about it. Exactly. And we, of course, know there's a money time trade off with a lot of things that we do. You can kinda meet into the middle, though, at the same time. So one of the things that we do, like, if you you get we get all the big stuff.

It's almost like you have a jar, and you get, like, the big rocks and then get the smaller rocks, then you fill it up with the sand to fill it to to get everything filled up. So we get all the big stuff first, the couches and your beds and your mattresses. Now the company that we get them from, we get them we hire a company to deliver them. When they deliver it, they set it up. They set up the big stuff.

Steve: Are you gonna install them anymore?

TJ: No. I'm a say

Steve: that. I'm not so

TJ: I'm not so I'm not so my days is putting beds together and done. I'm a tell you now. So what we this is what we do now, and and we we we have that company set it up. Then we get all the supporting cast, all the supporting furniture, your end tables, your coffee tables, your dining tables, your bar stools, all that stuff. Your art too, all the art.

We get all that set to the property, which people ask me all the time, where do you shop it? Everywhere. Amazon, Overstock, Walmart. I mean, everywhere. We shop everywhere.

Etsy, all everywhere. So we get all the support and stuff in it, and then we hire somebody to come put it all together.

Steve: Mhmm.

TJ: See, I have a guy. He comes, and he assembles all the all the tables, all the dining tables, all the nightstands and bar stools, all that, And he puts up all the art, and he is excellent, man. He got the laser. He he slides it up, make sure it's perfect. Like, he is way better at Sedna than I am.

So Yeah. He's a 10, so I'd like to hire him to to go to go ahead and do that. Then you have all the all the supportive stuff like your your coffee maker and your your shampoos and your sheets and all that to make all the beds. We get all that stuff sent. A lot of time, Amazon.

All that stuff sent to the property. Then we train somebody. The person that I trained is one of the clean somebody used to clean for me. So she still cleans for me, but now she does this too. Yeah.

So she'll come in, unbox everything. She knows exactly how I like it set up, and she sets everything up. But now that's kind of beaten in the middle. Yeah.

Steve: You know

TJ: what I mean? But it's still a pretty efficient way to get to get your property for as far as possible.

Steve: One thing you wanna talk about was what operators should we focus on right now?

TJ: So things that folks should be focused on right now. I'd like to let people know that at at this day and time, 2022, this year that we're in, the short term rental strategy is changed. It was birthed over ten years ago, and times have changed. And, with that, we I I am gearing my students to change their mindset in the way that they look at Airbnb, not looking at Airbnb as where they're gonna get their bookings. Yes.

You will get your bookings from there. But more so looking at it as a lead force, meaning every single person that books with you and every person that comes with them. So this is pretty much every person that steps foot in your property, they need to be in your own database. Right now, what we we should be focused on is building our own database of people that we can retarget to book with us directly. Now we have our own direct booking site.

That way, we are now yes. We're still gonna get booked from Airbnb, but not Airbnb is not just for bookings, but more so a lead source as well. Mhmm. So where you're growing your own list and getting your own people to book with you directly. Now, this is the difference between just doing Airbnb and having a long term sustainable short term rental business that's gonna be here for you for with us.

Steve: I like that. I mean, it's kinda like when you get the Uber, and you're like, hey, Here's my card. Exactly. Call me.

TJ: Call me. Exactly. Exactly. So should you be should you poach people from Airbnb as in, like, if they want if they inquire or wanna book, say, no. No.

No. Don't even book it here. Just book direct. No. Don't do that.

No.

Steve: You'll get you'll get canceled.

TJ: You'll get canceled. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah.

TJ: They'll cancel you quickly. Yeah. But you so if they if they come through the platform, it don't matter if it's Airbnb, booking.com, VRBO. If they come through the platform, host them through the platform. Now it is your job to have a system in place Mhmm.

To where you are collecting their information after their stay. And now you're able to retarget them after their stay to book with you direct next time they wanna stay with you, stay in your marketplace, and encourage them to share your website to other people. Yeah. Consistency with it, you will find that a lot of your book is gonna start coming in direct, not just from Airbnb. And now you have I mean, this that's a business.

Steve: That's genius. What CRM are you using for that?

TJ: What is the

Steve: CRM? What what tool are you using

TJ: to? So there's a few okay. So you can use channel managers Mhmm. That also have direct booking websites on them. Got it.

And a channel manager is very important because this is the this is the way that you can be on multiple platforms but still be on one calendar. So So somebody books on Airbnb, it needs to be blocked off on booking.com. And VR will be your engine direct booking site if you have one. But if they book on your direct booking site, it'll be blocked off on audio. Those dates can be blocked off on all the other platforms.

So channel managers, that we like are Lodgify. We like Your Porter, which has now been purchased by Guste, which Guste is the biggest one out there. Guste, Your Porter, Tokit's another good one. And there's a few. Hostaway, I mean, there's but they all have their own personality.

They all have different features. It's important to just do your research and figure out which one works best for you and your business model and just run with that one. But most of them have their own, direct booking site that you can actually have on there as well. So it'll sync all your calendars, including your direct booking site calendars to make sure you're not having any double bookings, and now you have one direct booking site.

Steve: Yeah. That's awesome. How much are you saving with a direct booking site?

TJ: So most most folks, when they book on Airbnb, they have to pay 13 to 14% fees, most guests. So that's actually so when, we get a guest in our database, they stay with us. The first email that goes out to them, so, hey, thank you so much for for booking with us. Thanks so much for staying with us and booking through Airbnb, staying staying with us. Next time, book direct with us and save on Airbnb.

Save the 14% Airbnb fees. Here's an additional 15% off for you next day Uh-huh. With us. So they save money on that. So they're definitely incentivized from a guest perspective to book with you direct for sure.

Gotcha.

Steve: Alright. And, you know, I think one thing that comes up is a question I heard before is when you're the the cohost, right, not the arbitrage, but the cohost, How are you how is your behavior different than a property manager

TJ: Mhmm.

Steve: Right, where you have to be licensed?

TJ: Yeah. Yeah. So that's a good so, it's it's it's different in a sense that we are more so managing it's like you're you're you're not managing the property yourself, you're managing the experience that the guest has. Right? So you are when it comes to that and it's interesting because a lot of folks were like, how come you can do this?

You don't need a property management license. Like, you don't even need that. No. You don't, actually. Matter of fact, I went to University of Houston, graduated from there.

At the University of Houston, there's a hotel and hospitality school, like, one of the very few in the state of Texas. Yeah. But you can actually get a degree in hospitality. You don't need a degree in hospitality Yeah. To do this business.

This is definitely a hospitality based business, though. This is real estate, but it's hospitality as well. Yeah. And I think that's where the management kinda changes. On a a traditional property manager, it's more more so managing that that building.

But on this side, we're managing the experience that the guest has more so than anything. We're managing it on a hospitality side.

Steve: Have you guys done anything? Like, dragging forward in front of the board, and they explain this to them, and then, like, oh, okay. You're right.

TJ: I haven't had to. Okay. I haven't had to. Nope.

Steve: Alright. I'm just curious. Yeah. Alright, guys. We're gonna start answering your questions.

But before we do that, guys, if you need help in your business, schedule a call someone on my team, send us a message on Instagram, and we'll see if there if there's something that we can help you with your business, specifically. So on YouTube, hummablebeme, did you have to obtain a short term rental permit before you could do the Airbnb method?

TJ: That's that's a good question. And to answer that, it depends on your marketplace. Depends on the market. Some markets require you to actually get a permit, to in order to to to operate as a short term rental operator, and some don't. And that's I mean, that's as simple as it gets.

For example, in Houston, we don't need a permit. Do I feel that a, some type of license or permits come in in Houston? That yes. Because not all regulation is bad. Right?

Not all regulation is bad. So yes. It depends on the marketplace. Some are wide open, some are not.

Steve: Alright. And then, so we're gonna ask you still to carpentries it. Yes. Cheryl on Instagram, can you do this while being a real estate agent?

TJ: Absolutely. Yes, you can. Matter of fact, Cheryl, it would it actually could be a plus to have a license in this business because especially if you want to do rental arbitrage and you are looking to have these conversations with landlords. Because having a license just more so, do you need it? No.

You don't need it to do this business. I don't have a license. So, and I'm able to scale my business, but it it it almost further solidifies you as a professional to just have a license. Like, hey. I wanna do this, but I'm actually a licensed, realtor or I'm I'm actually licensed in real estate.

It just it just almost gives them that additional sense of security. Do you need it? No. But will it give the landlord an additional sense of security? Yes.

It will. Yeah.

Steve: And I think, if you are licensed, doing this will bring in more regular business.

TJ: 100%.

Steve: You have no idea. Nicer properties.

TJ: Nicer properties. Nicer properties. And you can imagine a lot of my students have licenses. Mhmm. And they are doing very well because of the opportunities, not just from what what I just said, but the opportunities that come their way as well for sure.

Right.

Steve: And if you do want because every property, for the most part, is nicer.

TJ: Absolutely.

Steve: Photographs really well.

TJ: Photographs very well. Absolutely.

Steve: Instagram worthy.

TJ: Yep.

Steve: Like, they're all I'll put it all over your social media.

TJ: Checks auto yep.

Steve: Yeah. So, like, it it only helps

TJ: It helps. More real estate business. 100%.

Steve: Yeah. Alright. So, Jeremy, on YouTube, are you going through the typical process, once the landlord is interested, credit credit check, background, first month deposit, so on? Like, are you when you're renting it, are you going through their process, the landlord's process?

TJ: Yes. So when I'm renting it, understand, we're renting it with the full intentions with them being well aware of what we're doing with the property. A lot of times, we rent it all the time we rent on our business. A lot of times, they still want us to they still want to do a, they still want to vet us as as the business owner. So, yeah, they may still want to run your credit.

They may still want you to go through the traditional application process. They may. And that's okay. But as long as you still rent it the right way, that's okay. Sometimes sometimes they won't even require it.

And then the way that we talk about it is just the way we position ourselves with our company, most of the time, they don't even they just, like, okay, well, this is different. We're just gonna rent. This is a company renting it. So and it's usually not even that, usually not an issue that we have to run into. But you could 100% run into that run into that to where they wanna do a background check on you and, run you through that traditional process.

But still, that's okay. You can still run to play that way. Sure. Yeah.

Steve: And I'm seeing a bunch of you guys watching right now. I see 22 likes. If you guys know somebody that needs to hear this and needs to ask questions about being short term rentals, tag them, share this with them so that they can, you know Absolutely. Get some knowledge right here. So Raylan's asking, are you using VAs to run your business?

TJ: Absolutely. So VAs for sure, I have three.

Steve: Three?

TJ: Three VAs. Yep. I'll tell I'll I'll tell you my org chart, my pecking order. It's like, of course, it's me. I have an executive VA, and then there are two VAs under her.

And then it's two cleaning teams, one maintenance guy who's on retainer, and then all the technology that we use. That's it.

Steve: It's really simple.

TJ: Yeah. Now, Liz, this Yeah. I like to we we like to be as lean as possible.

Steve: Gotcha. Who's marketing to the landlords to pick up more rental, arbitrage?

TJ: So who's marketing to them? I mean, you are as the as the owner. So what we do is we go out and we look at we go online and we look for properties that are on ramp for traditional leases. And those are the ones that we go after.

Steve: But are you doing it, or do you have someone other else someone some other team?

TJ: Oh, yeah. Okay. So now I have somebody else that looks at it for me. But, yeah, I was doing that for sure until until I scaled and now I have a VAD system.

Steve: Are the VADs do it they're the ones that identifying those for you or Yes.

TJ: They identify them for me. Yep. Absolutely. Cool. Absolutely.

Steve: And then, Corey on YouTube, do you have experience or what are your thoughts on this model in Miami?

TJ: Miami is a good market. They do have some some rules, but if you can navigate them, which you can, just understand what the rules are and and, which you can definitely navigate the rules. If you can get in Miami, it definitely will be a good market for sure.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, it just it just seems like this would be a great thing

TJ: to do. Oh, yeah. If you can. Yeah. If you can.

For sure.

Steve: Yeah. Julie on YouTube, do you have any units outside of Texas?

TJ: So So I don't have any outside of Texas. Not right now. I do plan on getting some. You know what's crazy? Every time I wanna get outside of Texas, more opportunities in Texas just come.

So I end up just staying put. So

Steve: And there's nothing wrong with that. Right? I mean, if there if people are coming to you, keep just keep leveraging it. Absolutely. So, Luis, on YouTube, how do you vet your renters?

I mean, I guess Good question. What are you what are you looking for when you're accepting

TJ: a a guest? This is a really good question because vetting your guests is a very important topic because, a lot of folks get this wrong, and a lot of folks allow people in their property that should not be in their property. And it cause riffraff, and they cause trouble. And now now you have issues with either the your landlord or your apartment complex. For one thing, we ask very qualifying questions.

While you take a step back before that, we don't have instant see, one of the things that Airbnb does, they incentivize you for having instant booking on for for people being able to book with you instantly. We don't put that all for our bigger units, our bigger units because they are more prone to they are they are bigger targets, essentially, for the riffraff, for the parties.

Steve: For the parties. Yeah. For the

TJ: parties. Exactly. So, but we don't have it all. So people you have to request a book, and we have to approve your reservation. Once you send a request to book, we're asking all the qualifying questions.

I'll tell you a couple of them right now. Have you well, why are you here? Like, they have to tell you a reason. Matter of fact, it's it's the booking call, like, in the call to action before you book to tell us why you're booking with us. So they have to tell us why they have to tell us why they're booking with us.

They have to let us know, will there be any additional visitors outside of the people on the reservation? Very important. I'm not and I'm not saying that will there be any other people staying low. Will there be any visitors outside of the people on the reservation? Have you read the house rules and do you and can you please confirm that you agree with the house rules?

Right? These are things that you want. These are qualified. You want to make sure you ask this question. Another thing that we don't do, we don't you have to have a really good reason to be a local folk, to be local and want to book with us.

You have to have a really good reason. Now Houston, we now Houston's massive, and everything's inside the city, though, like the the med center downtown, Midtown. Well, sometimes a lot of folks that live in the suburbs, they may wanna just be closer to town because they may have a family member that's in the medical center that's going through something, and they wanna be closer to town, or maybe they wanna be in town for the weekend because they have something going on downtown. You have to have a really good reason. And we ask, but we literally like, most of the people that wanna book with us, if they're local, we don't accept them.

Steve: Got it. And, do you guys I mean, what are the rules? Like, could you put cameras on these or your properties?

TJ: Good question. So you can't you can't have a camera wherever you want. You can put a camera wherever you want. You just have to state it on your listing exactly where it is. Got it.

So we we we only put cameras in the exterior of our property. So you want cameras at the exterior entry points of your properties because you wanna make sure that you're managing the the the influx of people, the the traffic coming into your property. Sometimes somebody say they might say, oh, it's two of us coming to stay, and then you see 15 people walking into your your property. Like, you wanna be aware of that. You know what I mean?

Another thing that you wanna make sure that you do, check out a noise monitoring, device. The two that I recommend are the Minute, m I n u t, or Noise Aware. These are two top companies that do this. I'm actually gonna have one of them come to my event that's gonna be in Houston in June. But this is a device that you put at your property, and you set the noise level.

Uh-huh. Right? And as soon as the noise level in the property goes above that normal kind of talking noise level, you got you got alerted to your phone and say, hey. It's a party party level noise going on right here at the property.

Steve: This

TJ: gives you a chance to make sure you get ahead of it, or or at least get to it address it as fast as possible. So make sure that you have noise monitoring system at your properties. Again, cameras, very important, on the exterior. Now is there any case where I will be okay with a camera inside your property? Again, I don't recommend putting any cameras inside your Airbnbs.

I don't recommend doing it. But if you wanna do it, do it, but just state it on your listing exactly where it is. Because if you don't, then you get in a lot of trouble. But the only situation where I would allow cameras inside is if you are renting the property out, not the entire space Mhmm. But per room.

Because you can do it, the entire space, you could do per room as well. Now say you have a three

Steve: bedroom started.

TJ: Exactly. That's that's how I started. That's exactly how I started, actually. Yeah. And say you have a three bedroom property and you rent it out per room, and so each you have a different guest in each room, then it may be a good idea to have a camera in a common area like the living room or the kitchen area because they're all sharing.

And if something happens and they're not they're all gonna deny it. Something breaks. So they're all gonna deny it. So that way, you have actual footage of what what actually took place.

Steve: So yeah. I I had a friend. I wanna say she had, like, a thermal sensor. Mhmm. Right?

She could track how many bodies Are in are in the house.

TJ: Yes. Yes. That that's out there too. You can definitely get one of those too. We like the noise monitoring, though.

Steve: Now the noise monitoring, that's that's pretty smart. So what's some, powerful word you use, spelling agreement, you know, to, I guess, to protect yourself? Do you have anything, like, any strong wording in your in your thing?

TJ: In the in our in the agreements that we have with the landlords or in the or the house rules? Mhmm. Oh, my gosh. Our house rules are your house rules should be very stern. It should almost make you sound a little mean.

Like, it should be, like, very stern to where as they read it, they're like, okay. Yeah. They're not playing. Like That's

Steve: how I feel. Why why don't I read those things?

TJ: They feel exactly.

Steve: And I was like, do I wanna stay here?

TJ: Exactly. Like, it should make them feel a little bit uncomfortable. Like, but if they they're still gonna stay there, but it's gonna it's gonna kinda resonate to them, like, okay, they're they're for real. Like, let me not but, I mean, we have all kind of stuff in our house rules. I mean, of course, there's no smoking, none of that.

One of the things that you wanna include is the fines. Put the fines on like, if they break it, put the fine on it. Let them see that dollar amount. If they break it, do that. And, you know, it's fine.

I said, so no smoke is a $500 fine.

Steve: That was

TJ: what I used to put on there. And, and so people would just go in there and be like, I'll pay the 500. Let you smoke. Yeah. Yeah.

So so sometimes your fine has to be now it's $2. Yeah. Now it's now it's Now

Steve: it's painful.

TJ: Now it's painful. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, yes, you wanna be be stern with your house rules. They include dollar amounts too.

And, also, like, when people make sure that you hold them accountable for the for the traffic. If they say it's three people staying and it turns out it's 10 people in that property, you wanna have that in your house or say, hey, any additional person outside of stated on a reservation, it's $35 per person per night Or 30 like, make it like or $50 like, make it put that dollar amount there and yeah. Yeah. Definitely do that as well. Free house rules.

Yep.

Steve: And then Howard, they just formed a partnership with investors in Texas to find French properties. And managed their BBs. Any advice for them? So they just started a partnership with investors in Texas. Okay.

TJ: And to to manage. So so I'm assuming so what he's saying is he's gonna co host, gonna manage their short term rentals for them. Excellent. Good stuff. Good stuff.

I mean, you know, again, the same systems, the same infrastructure that you need to whether you're closing, whether you're arbitraging it, is the is the exact same. Just make sure that you are very, very transparent with your landlords. Like, you know, just make sure that, that you you doing the things that you say you're gonna do. Some folks have landlords that want to be, they wanna be very, very, very involved with, like, they wanna see who all is in there all the time. They wanna see the numbers coming in and be like, no.

We let us do our thing. Right? Let us do our thing. But, but, yes, I mean, good stuff good stuff. Congratulations on that.

Definitely run it up. I'm not sure what market you're in, but, but definitely definitely just do right by the landlords and watch what happens. Because a lot of times, we we we whether we're cohost or whether we're arbitraging, when we do right by these landlords, they always bring us more opportunities. They always bring us more opportunities. So we'll definitely do that.

Right.

Steve: And then Kai on YouTube wants to know, what do you do when you hit a mental roadblock or bump in your business?

TJ: Oh, man. I For one, I will say I always adjust my mindset of gratitude. Right? The mindset of gratitude instead of like, man, this is freaking difficult. I gotta deal with this.

It's more so like, alright, I get to deal with this. You know what I mean? I get to I get to solve this problem even though it's painful, but I get to do it. And that alone is enough to be grateful, and that alone is enough motivation to go ahead and get it done. So, that I always use that mindset whenever I feel stuck or I feel auto or I feel a little less motivated.

That's the mindset I go to for sure.

Steve: Got it. And on YouTube, Sabrina wants to know, how do you know how much to charge for cleanup?

TJ: Good question. So you wanna look at what other kind of comparable properties are charging for cleaning. Look at what other comparables are charging for cleaning your area. Also, look at what you're paying for cleaning. Right?

Look at what you're paying, because we always tend to either be right there or above. Like, we're never below whatever we charge our cleaning. So we're right there whatever we charge our cleaning or above. And so and so compare look at what your cleaners are charging you, but also cross reference that with what what the what property similar to yours are charging for cleaning and come up with a number in between there.

Steve: Gotcha. And John Clash wants to know when purchasing short term rentals, how much equity are you trying to to get?

TJ: Oh, good question. See, I purchased my short term rentals with other people's money. I love using, 70, the burst strategy. I love 70% LTV. I like to capture 30% equity, even after the refinance.

I like to buy them still with the 1% rule, but still running it as a short term rental. Now I think that's very important to understand because we all understand that in real estate, it doesn't matter what what exit you do, whether you do Airbnb, whether you do buy and hold, whether you wholesale, whether you fix and flips. You make your money when you buy it. You gotta buy it right on the front end. So even for folks that wanna buy their short term rentals, if they say that, oh, I wanna buy this property to make it at Airbnb.

Cool. But will it cash flow with a traditional tenant? Will it make money if you if all else fails, you put a regular tenant in it. Will it still cash flow? And if it will not, then you bought it wrong.

Steve: Man.

TJ: It still should cash flow with a traditional tenant because guess what? You don't know what could happen in that marketplace. Mhmm. You don't know what kind of HOA your deed restriction can might might come in a neighborhood to

Steve: Municipality.

TJ: Municipalities, like like ordinances in your city can come up. Like, you never know what might what could happen to where you might need to make a pivot. That's why you wanna make sure that you buy that property right. If it will only cash flows in the Airbnb, you didn't buy it right.

Steve: Yeah. One of the things I always think is kinda funny, you know, like, back in the day, you you have someone, like, buy the buys it wrong. It's like, oh, you know, I decided to keep it as a rental. Right? Like, that's kinda like back to the day, that's not that's how you you know, you knew you bought it wrong.

Yeah. Right? Now it's like first, it's like, well, this could be a rental And then as well, this might do well as an Airbnb, or now it's this might do well as a group home.

TJ: Yep. Right?

Steve: If that's the only way that works Yeah. You didn't buy it right.

TJ: Exactly. I agree a 100%. 100%.

Steve: So Lotto on YouTube, what advice would you have for someone looking to start an Airbnb property management company?

TJ: I would say, and and my one of my biggest and, you know, it's a similar question that was asked to me about how if I was to start over, what what would I do? Would I have done anything different? But I had already spoke to this earlier. The one thing I would do differently is change my mindset and understand the value that I bring to these landlords And understand that in the position that I'm in, in order to grow my management company, I am literally being the perfect tenant for these landlords. And coming from a from a place of confidence is gonna make all the difference.

I wish I had the mentality going into it. I have more units than I have now. But don't be scared. Don't come from a place of scarcity. Come from a place of value, understanding the value that you bring to the landlords.

That's gonna change the game for you for sure.

Steve: And then, Jeremy wants to know, are you targeting FSBOs at all for short term rentals?

TJ: That is interesting. I actually haven't targeted FSBO for a short term rental before. We usually just target, properties that, you know, if we purchase them, then we we take them down distressed and we we rehab them, turn them into short term rentals. Or these are properties that are for rent, that we are looking to work with a landlord and, that are for rent, and we just rent them out that way. So I haven't targeted FISBO yet, but that's actually interesting.

That's a good

Steve: And Corey g wants to know what's the craziest thing that's ever happened to you as a host?

TJ: I would say when the feds kicked in one of my doors. So we had this is a direct booking, actually. I had a direct booking of a guy. He booked with us, out of California, and, it wasn't him. It was somebody one of his friends.

And so, apparently, the the, the the that person was wanted. I don't know what for. So what they did was they sent a fake package to the door to get somebody to open it just to get some visibility of who's inside. So it turns out the dude that they were looking for opens the door. And so he he he just they he just takes a package.

He closed the door. Literally, three minutes late, they kicked the door down and and arrest them.

Steve: And not yourself if you're wanted.

TJ: If you want.

Steve: Don't open the door.

TJ: Open the door. What I've had I've had all kind of oh my god. I've had in my earliest I'll I'll say this one quick one, Steve, if it's okay. There was one one time this is my earliest. This is 2018.

So early. I lost my first storm rental December 2017. This is May 2018. This is a a arbitrage deal, one bedroom, one bath apartment in Downtown Houston, and I had one day left before I'm a 100% booked. I said, man, I'm killing it this month with this unit, killing it.

One day left and somebody want somebody send a request and a book it. Hey. I'm just coming in from Galveston. I just need a place to stay for the night. I said, man.

Okay. Bet. My mind automatically I wanna get a 100% occupancy. I wanna be able to brag. I'm a 100% occupy.

So I said, okay. Yeah. Cool. So I'll let him stay. He he comes in.

Now this apartment community, I the first thing that happens, I get a call from the security guard He said, yo, TJ, I'm not sure what the heck is going on, but it's a lot of riffraff going on at your at your unit. I'm saying, what? What are you talking so I look at the camera. I look at the camera on my phone, and I see that it's just pitch black. And I'm like, Oh crap.

Just what I needed. The camera's busted. It's not working. Then I noticed that the red button is still blinking. I said, Oh my God, they put a freaking sock over the dang camera.

They put a tape, whatever. They covering the lens of the camera. I said, Oh wow. So I called him. I said, Hey, I'm on my way.

And he said, you want to go up there? I said, wait on me. Let's go up there together. So I go up there. I met with the security guard, and we walk up there together.

And I'm talking about this is a nice apartment complex too. Like, this is nice. It's probably 40 people. This not just in the apartment, in the hallways. The the tenants are coming outside.

Like, what the heck is going on? It's like 01:30 in the morning. I'm talking about it was a bad situation. So my we get everybody. Everybody gotta get out.

We're kicking everybody out. I'm like, this is a movie or something like we get everybody kicked out. And, of course, I definitely got some trouble with the community the next day. But thankfully, they did kick me out. And I would be I've been so good already.

I had started raining it out that January. Everything has been running so smoothly. And so this is like first offense. And, and, that is the situation that you definitely wanna avoid. And guess what?

If you're a 100% occupancy, it's not a bad thing. If you're a 100% occupiers occupied from a thirty day reservation, then that's different. But if you're renting out of traditionally, hosting host hosting your guest traditionally, you're a 100% occupied, it's actually very likely you left money on the table. Very likely you left money on the table. That means you are priced way too low, and you should increase your price.

It's better to increase your price and have a few days in your calendar to handle even I mean, even just to handle things in between that might you might need to handle. Is you will make more money increasing your price, being 80% occupied, and having a few days left to your calendar. I just learned that really quick.

Steve: Weasel on, on YouTube. What's your strategy in picking a good location or property?

TJ: So so it's gonna be it's gonna take research. It's definitely gonna take research. Look up properties that do that do well on the platform. I mean, that that's Googleable. Right?

Then AirDNA is gonna be, definitely gonna play play a huge role. AirDNA is gonna speak to what to expect in terms of demand as well as income in that particular for the for that particular property. And, again, we talked about AirDNA and how to take their data with a grain of salt. I like to let people know to also couple that with some stealth research on Airbnb as well. Go on Airbnb as a traveler.

Go on the map views. Go into the marketplace that you wanna be in and individually click on those listings. See what they're charging, see how far ahead they're booked, see if they even have professional photography, see how well put together the the the the listing is. Then cross reference that with AirDNA as well, and that would give you a really good idea of what to expect in terms of income and and demand in a particular property or marketplace for sure. Awesome.

Steve: And then Darcy also wants to know, do you work, with hospitals for traveling nurses?

TJ: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. If you have units that are, within fifteen minutes, maybe two miles away from your medical center, you should definitely be targeting travel nurses.

Not just travel nurses, doctors that travel from wherever to perform procedures, and also patients. We serve a lot of patients, and patients stay for weeks at a time. We just had somebody stay at our unit. They checked out last week. Her he bought her son.

He had to get his foot amputated. Right? So one of the things that you have to ask yourself in this business strategy is who are you serving? Because that who will answer a lot of other questions. For example, we put a TV in every single room.

The living room and the bedroom gets four screen, four k, flash screen TV mounted on the wall. Do you need a TV in the bedrooms to be successful? No, you don't. But we know that we serve medical folks. We know that we serve patients that are likely to get a procedure done.

And as a result, their their mobility is is gonna be limited. On a bed rest. Exactly. So being on a bed, a bed that's very comfortable, being have being able to be entertained while the mobility is limited, could go a long way.

Steve: Do you work with a hospital or it's just on Airbnb?

TJ: Oh, no. We work with the hospitals. We definitely work with the hospitals.

Steve: With direct booking?

TJ: Yeah. We get those bookings direct. We definitely get those bookings direct for sure.

Steve: And then, I don't know how to say this person's name. I apologize. So, how do you handle problems or nosy neighbors?

TJ: Oh, man. I would say when it comes to nosy neighbors, because we've definitely dealt with that, get them on your side. Get them on your side. Bring them in in the phone. Let them know exactly what you're doing.

Let them know they look. Let them know that you're you have their interest at heart as well. Let them know that you're doing this business, that you're you have full intentions of doing this the right way, that you're gonna be screening your guests the best way that you know how. And if they see anything that's out of their ordinary, they feel free to reach out to you. Bring them on the team.

Let them let them buy in to what you already what you currently have going on. Exactly. And that's gonna definitely help you solve that problem with your neighbors.

Steve: And Fantasia wants to know, that she's heard you can do this, start without using your own money. So what do you say to people that wanna get started in this without their own money?

TJ: I mean, a lot of business that you can start, you can't start without using your own money. You can. And this is one that you can as well. You can especially if you wanna do rental arbitrage. You do rental arbitrage, yes.

You can say whether you have and even with our students, we have an investment packet to where if you want to leverage somebody else's money to help you get started, say, hey, you know what? Give me 5 k, give me 10 k, and I'll give you x amount of return on your money over x amount of time. We have an entire business plan for our students that we can use to position your business for to to to raise some capital to get your first unit going. Also, look at things like, Amazon business. Amazon business alone, once you get on set up an Amazon business account, you're you don't even have to have a certain amount of tenure to get it.

So just set it up, go ahead and apply for the net 30 line of funding. It's not gonna be a whole lot of money to start, but it's gonna be a few grand to help you get started with your first one. Understand that's a net 30 account, so you wanna make sure that you pay it back within thirty days. Another way that you can get some capital, PayPal business. PayPal business is another one.

You don't have to have like a certain amount of all this business experience to go ahead and apply for it. And apply for PayPal business, go ahead and apply for their business line as well. Again, it's not gonna be that much to start you off with. Once you just take that money, you spend it, and you pay it back, of course, they're gonna increase your line. The the that those two right there just getting started, get you started, with your first list.

Steve: Any particular Net thirty accounts you recommend?

TJ: Outside I mean, I will I will start with those two for sure. And I would say, probably, we love I mean, the with the local banks that we have, we love the net 30 accounts with BBVA that we that we use.

Steve: I've never heard of net 30 account.

TJ: You you never heard of a net 30 account? No. Oh, for real. This is pretty much like a business account. It's a it's a business line, but they want you to pay back in thirty days.

That's essentially Like

Steve: an Amex card?

TJ: Yes. Like an Amex card. Exactly.

Steve: Alright. What are the protections besides insurance you have in place for your direct bookings?

TJ: Protections. Oh, man. Okay. So, for one, your lease. We have leases in our program that for for people that want to book direct with us.

Yes. They're gonna book on your platform. Yes. But we still also give them lease agreements, especially if they're booking for for longer term. And this is very important.

You wanna especially if you wanna market well, it really don't matter what market you're in. You wanna be careful of tenant rights. Right? Because if somebody stays at your property because by definition, short term rentals are stays that are twenty nine days or less. Any days more than that.

You know what I'm saying? They wanna claim tenant rights because they send they send a mail to your property and they wanna use that to claim tenant rights. They you now now you're in a battle. Right?

Steve: Anyone enjoy that with you?

TJ: Oh, yeah. They've tried that with me. But what we do is somebody wanna book direct and they wanna book two months or three months or anything over a month, we send them we don't send them a lease agreement or the cover in three months. We send them three leases covering twenty nine days a ton, If that makes sense. Right?

Steve: And then Buy twenty nine and get one free.

TJ: Exactly. I'll get one free. Exactly. So say somebody wants to book direct with you, they want to book sixty days or ninety days, whatever. You don't send them a sixty day lease agreement.

Send them $2.29 or 30 day lease agreements. Yeah. Two of those. That way you'll be able to be able to avoid that. Another thing to look out for, like when you are on Airbnb, of course, somebody damages one of your stuff, you can file a claim for it, and Airbnb will pay you out.

Now, this is different from, like, a huge liability issue, like the the kitchen caught on fire or somebody wants to sue you. That's what the protection of the proper short term rental insurance is for, which you want to write this company down if you if you hear me, proper insurance. They are the number one insurance provider for short term rental properties, whether you own it or you rent it. With that though, if somebody books direct with you, you also want to have another company called Wevo. Wevo is another company.

They're actually a sister company to Proper. This protects you for, like, the your tables. And if somebody breaks your couch, you can file a claim, they'll get you paid out rather quickly. So that's another way to make sure that you're protected, and we use that even with our direct booking guests as well. So protecting yourself with the lease agreements, for sure, and make sure that you have the right insurance.

And when people book with you direct is gonna go a long way.

Steve: Cool. And, you know, we talked about we touched on this a little bit earlier, but what keeps you going? What is your why?

TJ: Man, my why is my family, my family, my mom. You know, retiring her has always been always been a goal. And so, you know, just being able to being able to be because at the end of the day, my goal is to help as many people as possible. But you you can only do so much if you're if you're not getting to the bag yourself. So you you know so for me, my goal is to help as many people as possible, especially with this business strategy that changed my life.

And, but my why has definitely been inspired by my family for sure.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle right now?

TJ: Biggest struggle right now, finding more apartments.

Steve: Oh, yeah. We didn't talk about that. So let's talk about what what are you trying to do with apartments?

TJ: So right now, what we're doing right now is we are buying more so medium sized apartment complexes, and we're essentially gutting them out, and we're converting them to boutique hotels or social Airbnb hotels. So closing on, my second one in Houston, and we're definitely gonna be branching out to different marketplaces, this year as well. And so, so outside of just the short term rental company, we're actually scaling by developing essentially short term rental boutique hotels as well. Super excited about that.

Steve: And how do you measure or define success?

TJ: I I would measure or define success by how successful are the people around you. The amount of help that you're able to help people, is your is what you're doing. How much for how much not just for profit, but also for purpose is what you're doing. I think that to me is the true measure of success. Awesome.

Steve: And what is your superpower?

TJ: Superpower? Man, I would say I would say, I would say, again, I would say gratitude. Because my mindset on gratitude literally helps me on a lot of things. If you were to if I was to hand if I was to hand anybody a million dollars right now today, they will be super ecstatic. It'll change their life.

They'll be happy. They'll be, you know, they'll they'll they'll they'll be confident. They'll be able to feel like they can take on the world. Right? But then, even though we go through things and live, life is hard, and we go through struggles, and we wake up every morning, and we feel like, oh, man.

Like, okay. You know, things are hard. I gotta go through this. But we don't realize that because if I was to say, okay, I'll give you a million dollars, but you don't you don't wake up tomorrow. Uh-huh.

Nobody's taking that deal. So why don't we look at every day do we wake up like we're being handed a million dollars? Like, and so that that that speaks to that mindset of gratitude to where it's not more so, man, I'm going through this, and I gotta do this. It's like I get to.

Steve: Right.

TJ: I get to. And so that's always been one of my superpowers for sure.

Steve: And what is the greatest lesson you've learned?

TJ: One of the biggest lessons I learned is how much further I can go together with like minded people. I was especially growing up and even getting into real estate, it was also like, man, you get your you get your money. It's your company. Your money. You make that wholesale fee.

You keep everything. You everything that you make, that's you. It's your company, your thing. You do. You solo show.

Now I learned quickly that I can go further with other people partnering and doing things together with like minded people. And so I know it sounds simple, but it literally changed everything for me. Yeah. It changed everything for me for sure.

Steve: Alright. That's a phenomenal mindset. Last question is what book have you gifted more than any other?

TJ: I would say No BS Time Management by Dan Kennedy. I mean, because it's something that we all struggle with is time management. Yeah. And that book right there puts in a perspective on how to actually value your time. And, and I'll give you another another another one that I it was actually a rec a required read for all of my students is profit first.

If your mindset about cash flow management is income minus expense equals profit, then you should read profit first. For sure.

Steve: So, next week, we got David Richter coming in. Nice. You know David?

TJ: No. Who's David Richter?

Steve: So he wrote, Profit First for Real Estate Investors.

TJ: Oh, really?

Steve: Yeah. So Michael Michalowicz.

TJ: Michalowicz. Yeah. He's the

Steve: lead role. Is the forward writes the forward for David's book next

TJ: week. Oh, fantastic. I love that. That's amazing.

Steve: But, going back to, the no BS time management, you know, one of my favorite words from that book, you know, by Dan Kennedy Yeah. Is time vampires. I like that. Right? Like, I love that.

He's like, yeah. These people just come in and just suck your time.

TJ: Suck suck your time dry. Time vampires. I love that.

Steve: Yeah. Alright. So, think about some last thoughts we wanna leave some listeners with while I make a couple of quick announcements. Guys, if you have value today, please like, subscribe, share, comment, and we do have our event coming up next week. So send me a message on Instagram workshop, and then we'll see if we can get you in.

And, we do have our discourse, so check out the link below. And, again, we got David Richter coming in next week. He wrote the book Profit First for Real Estate Investors. I'm excited to talk to him about that. So last thoughts Mhmm.

You want to leave those things with?

TJ: Man, I will say I will say for the folks listening, just get started. Get started. Understand that, you know, you don't have to have all the pieces to the puzzle. Understand that you just have to have enough pieces. There's no enough to get started.

I think if there's anything that the last two years have taught us is that we cannot solely depend on one source of income. Right? I think for for one, if there's anything that COVID has taught us is that, you know, having additional streams of income is no longer a, a, just a want, but more so a necessity. Right. So just take action.

Take action, make things happen. And And again, you don't have to know everything. Just know enough. For sure. Yeah.

Steve: So don't get ready to get ready.

TJ: Don't get ready to get ready. I love that.

Steve: Alright. So, how could someone get ahold of you?

TJ: Definitely tap on me on IG. IG, heavy. TJ Tijani. That's at TJTIJani. Hit me on Instagram, and, you know, that's probably the biggest platform I'm on right now.

Steve: Alright. Perfect.

TJ: For sure.

Steve: Thank you very much. Yeah. This is an absolute blast.

TJ: Amazing. I appreciate it.

Steve: Thank you guys for watching.

TJ: Oh, wow. I appreciate y'all so much. This is a lot.

Steve: Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. We real estate disruptors.